Updated Flyers Prospect Report

By Bill Meltzer

February 12th, 2000

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Stepping Up:

* The two best prospects in the Flyers system continue to be goaltendersMaxime Oullet and Antero Niittymäki. The strong play of both youngsterspretty much cancels out any loss of organizational goaltending depthsuffered when Jean-Marc Pelletier was traded to Carolina in the KeithPrimeau deal.

Oullet, coming off a spectacular World Junior Championships, continues tobe the best goaltender in the Quebec League. Oullet is now being widelyhyped around the hockey world as a potential franchise goalie. Arguably,he’s the best goalie in junior hockey today, although the Finley contigentmight dispute that. The buzz around Oullet coming off the WJC is not quiteequal to the hype that surrounded Roberto Luongo but it’s arguably on parwith the excitement created by Marc Denis and Martin Biron as theyprogressed at the junior ranks.

Niittymäki, selected the best goaltender in the Finnish Elite League duringthe first half of the season, faltered a tad at the World Juniors(particularly in Finland’s game against Russia) and ended up splitting timein goal with Devils draftee Ari Ahonen. It’s also true that Niittymäki’steammates did not play all that well in front of him in some of their keygames. However,Niittymäki has bounced back strong upon the resumption of league play.Therookie continues to rank #1 or #2 in most goaltending categories in theSM-Liiga. According to Philadelphia Inquirer Flyers columnist Tim Panaccio,Bob Clarke has indicated that the organization feels that Niittymäki willbe ready for AHL play next season. Oullet, who is not eligible for AHL playnext season, will play one more season of junior hockey.

* In the Western Hockey League, Cam Ondrik has also come on of late.Generally not considered more than a run-of-the-mill goaltending prospect,Ondrik answered his critics with an excellent month of January. Thenineteen year old Saskatoon keeper was selected the WHL Goaltender of theMonth (2.52 GAA, .926 Save percentage in 11 games).

* Among forwards in the system, Czech winger Vaclav Pletka has become thetop candidate for a 2000-2001 promotion to the North American pro ranks.Playing for Trinec, Pletka has emerged as one of the best scores in theCzech Extraleague (21 goals, 19 assists in 40 games played to date). He isa good candidate to make the World Championship roster for the CzechRepublic. In order for him to have a shot at ever sticking in the NHL, heis going to have to score goals consistently. The forward specializes athiding himself from the traffic and then emerging into sniping position.The other aspects of his game are average.

* After slow starts, both Ruslan Fedotenko and Tomas Divisek came on strongfor the Philadelphia Phantoms. Divisek was playing extremely well from midNovember into December but is currently out with a shoulder injury, whileFedotenko has returned from ademotion to the Trenton Titans to be a solid contributor in the Phantomssurge that has erased the club’s poor start.

* Defenseman Francis Lessard has been a real bright spot for the Phantoms.He has not been a healthy scratch once this season; which is a niceaccomplishment for a rookie playing under the demanding Bill Barber. Barberhas doled out Lessard’s ice time intelligently, gradually giving him moreresponsibilities. Lessard leads all AHL rookies with a +19 rating (a shadeahead of teammate Fedotenko).

Lessard’s biggest strength is that he does not seem to let mistakes botherhim; he seems to bounce back with more determination the next time around.He’s even shown a couple of flashes of offensive ability, although he’llnever be an offensive defenseman in the pro ranks. He is still a bitreckless in looking for the big hit and can get out of position sometimes.One of his strong points is his willingness to back up his teammates andespecially his goaltender. But Lessard still needs to be a little smarterabout taking penalties. He’s already racked up 299 penalty minutes; far toomany for a player with aspirations of being an NHL regular.

* Defenseman Jason Beckett got off to a slow start this year after a fineWHL campaign a year ago. He’s come on strong since December, although thereare some who say that he is a slower skater than he was advertized by theCSB. Strong and aggressive in his own end, Beckett still does not show muchpuckhandling or counter-rush headmanning ability.

* Forward David Nyström had a promising rookie year for Troja/Ljunby and asolid showing for Sweden at the World Junior Championships. Solid in hisown end of the ice, he showed some unexpected flashes of offensive ability;albeit against a lower grade of competition. is emerging as a candidate forElitserien play in 2000-2001, perhaps rejoining the Västra Frölunda program(he played his junior hockey for Frölunda before transferring toTroja/Ljunby for his first senior level play this season).

Holding Steady:

* Bruno St. Jacques, a pleasant surprise at the Flyers 1999 rookie camp, ishaving a good campaign for an improved Baie-Comeau club. A smooth skater,he is a candidate for minor pro play next year.

* Jeff Feniak, a player in a similar mold to Beckett, played decently, ifunspectacularly, for Calgary early in the season. After being traded toTri-City, he has continued to play solid and aggressive defense. There hasbeen a disturbing trend in the Flyers system for defense prospects to getoff to good starts after being drafted and then to stagnate or regress.Hopefully, Feniak will avoid that pitfall.

* Garrett Prosofsky is a good WHL offensive player, particularly on thepowerplay. However, he’s not nearly to the level he’d need to be if he werean NHL prospect. He might be placed with the Phantoms or the Titans nextyear but it’s hard to project him cracking an NHL lineup at his currentrate of development.

* Marko Kauppinen did not initially benefit from his offseason transferfrom JyP to Jokerit. True, he was now playing for a considerably betterteam. But he was going into a situation where the pressure to win meantthat there was little timeto suffer through the growing pains that any second year defenseman goesthrough. Kauppinen saw little use over the first couple months of thisseason. However, his ice time and production have picked up in recentweeks. He’s still a longshot for NHL play but eventually he could become anabove-average offensive defenseman in European or North American minorleague play.

Stock Falling:

* The two players involved in the boating accident that took the life ofFlyers defenseman Dmitri Tertyshny have both suffered through lacklustersophomore seasons after promising AHL rookie campains.

Mikhail Chernov has been one of the system’s bigger dissapointments so farthis year. He had seemed to be improving at a rapid rate in the last twoyears, but he has a taken a step backward this year. His play hasn’t reallybeen awful, but he has been a non-factor. He is not playing as aggressivelyor with the same confidence that he displayed in the second half of hisrookie season.

Francis Belanger, meanwhile, continues to drift in and out of Bill Barber’sdoghouse. He is basically a two-dimensional player. He can play theenforcer role at even strength and he can screen goalies and collect somedeflection and rebound goals on the powerplay. Skating, defensive play, andpuckhandling are not strengths of his games. As last season progressed,however, he had shown some improvement in those areas. He has gone backwardagain this year.

Even if neither player shows great improvement the rest of the year, theFlyers organization will probably bear with both players and write offtheir uneven on-ice play as part of the aftermath of the unspeakabletragedy of last summer. But it also true that if the entire campaign turnsinto a lost season development-wise, both Chernov and Belanger will have tomake up considerable ground next year to get back on track and avoid otherplayers passing them by.

* Jesse Boulerice is a case in point of how much damage a lost season cando to a once-promising prospect. He has struggled just to crack the AHLlineup and was once again demoted from the Phantoms. The organization isuncertain whether he’d be better off remaining at forward or moving back todefense (where he had played his first two junior seasons).

* Lubomir Pistek blasted out of the gates for the Kelowna Rockets earlythis season. He scored 5 goals in the first 8 games. But then his play slidbackward once again. After a while, he was pretty much confined to spoteven strength duty plus powerplay action (both last season and this season,most of his production has come on the man advantage). Soon after that, hewas out of the loop entirely. Pistek was dealt to Saskatoon, for whom hegot off to a decent start but has subsequently leveled off. A non-factor inSlovakia’s surprise run in the last world junior championships, Pistek didlittle to impress this time around, either.

* Ian Forbes has begun to fill out physically but the big Guelph defensemanis still raw and mistake-prone. There is no way he’ll be an NHL player inthe near future; he’s currently still a project even as an AHLer.

* Pär Styf’s offensive game has been nowhere to be seen for Timrå, nor hashe been a top defensive player for the current leaders of SuperAllsvenskan.